High Point program helps students see school in new light

Senior Freddy Niango, (left) 18, left, junior Carlian Odae, (right) 16, and teacher Patsy Conner look through copies of front pages from newspapers from around the world during Tuesday's "Youth With Purpose" meeting at High Point High School in Beltsville. Conner runs the non profit group for students at High Point who have previously struggled with gangs or poor grades.

By her junior year, High Point High School senior Diana Martinez's grades had started to drop.

She said she'd started hanging out with the wrong people and stopped caring about school.

Martinez's chemistry teacher, Patsy Conner, took notice and had a solution.

Conner got Martinez involved in Youth With Purpose, a non-profit group she runs out of the Beltsville school, aimed to expose troubled students to the arts, different cultures and a renewed attitude towards learning.

"Ms. Conner approached me and said I can do better," Martinez said. "I was just so frustrated. I came to [Youth With Purpose] and we had field trips and other things that made me realize I could change. After that, my grades went up real quick."

Conner started Youth With Purpose in November 2005 through a $13,000 grant by St. Alban's Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C, of which Conner is a member.

Conner said the purpose of the group is to change children's views on education through exposure to parts of society that are not taught in school.

The group consists of 50 students — 25 tenured members to serve as mentors to 25 new members.

Youth With Purpose students have gone to the Metropolitan Opera, the Smithsonian Museums, to nursing homes to volunteer, Washington, D.C. to distribute food to the homeless and to restaurants to teach the students fine dining etiquette.

Martinez, 18, of Langley Park said the group has opened her eyes to what education can do for her.

"It made me see that education was important," she said. "I started coming to class on time and everything. I'm a completely different person now."

Youth With Purpose member Shanice Rampersad, 16, a junior, said volunteering at a retirement home and distributing food to the homeless has had the most impact on her.

"I didn't have deep feelings in my heart for people out on the street or older people," said the Beltsville resident. "I got caught up with my own life and things teenagers think about, like clothes and shoes. I've let go of my selfish attitude and started to think about what other people are going through."

Sophomore Santos Fuentes of Hyattsville said the program has helped to keep him out of trouble.

Fuentes, 16, was an honor student at Buck Lodge Middle School in Adelphi, but said he started to get caught up with the wrong crowd and struggled with anger management.

"They weren't really my friends; they just wanted to get me in trouble," he said. "Now, I'd like to be a leader, not a follower. Right now, I could be in the street doing bad stuff. Instead, I'm here learning about other people and cultures with people that have the same interests as me."

Conner said it gives her a great sense of accomplishment to see her program's effects first hand.

"I cannot explain to you the feeling I get when I realize a child has changed their behavior or they've set goals when they had none before," she said.